Following certification of their online collection system (OCS) by the Luxembourg authorities, Fraternité 2020 has become the first European Citizens' Initiative to start collecting statements of support on the European Commission's own servers. Fraternité 2020 wants to "enhance EU exchange programmes – like Erasmus or the European Voluntary Service – in order to contribute to a united Europe based on solidarity among citizens", and was the first ECI to be registered by the Commission.

The European Commission today outlined new proposals to streamline legislation on environmental impact assessments. The proposals are intended to lighten administrative burdens and make it easier to assess the potential impacts of major projects, without weakening existing environmental safeguards. Current levels of environmental protection will be strengthened, and businesses should enjoy a more harmonised regulatory framework.

Today the European Commission has backed fully the decision by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to give its green light for the accession of Laos. Laos will become the 158th member of the global trade body once the full accession process is completed.

Commission clears acquisition of European Directories, local search and lead generation group, by Triton

The European Commission has granted clearance under the EU Merger Regulation to the acquisition of sole control by Triton Managers III Limited and TFF III Limited in their capacities, directly or indirectly, as general partners of Triton funds (“Triton”, Jersey) of the undertaking European Directories (DH7) B.V ("European Directories", The Netherlands). Triton is a private equity investment firm that provides management advice and manages investments in European-based businesses in different market sectors. European Directories is a pan-European local search and lead generation group which is active on the telephone directories markets and related markets, as well as on online and mobile search markets. The operation was examined under the simplified merger review procedure.

Commission at Symposium on Tuna Tagging in the Indian Ocean

The European Commission is participating as a major benefactor in the Indian Ocean Tuna Tagging Symposium (30 October – 2 November 2012), in Grand Baie, Mauritius. The EU supported the research project, the Indian Ocean Tuna Tagging Programme (IOTTP), through the European Development Fund (EDF) and between 2002 and 2009 more than 200,000 tuna were tagged and released in various areas of the Indian Ocean. The aim of this project was to know more about the status and population dynamics of the main stocks of tropical tunas in the Indian Ocean. This symposium will focus on the evaluation of the IOTTP so far. Today more than 31,500 tags have already been recovered in this project. This has given new insights into the spatial and migratory movements along with population dynamics and the biology of tropical tuna species such as Yellowfin, Bigeye and Skipjack. The latest results of this research which will be presented at the symposium will hopefully allow a debate on the relationship between science and management which should in turn lead to improvements in long-term sustainability, a fundamental objective in the EU's reform of its Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The reformed CFP also advocates closer working partnerships with regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs), in this instance the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC). As the world's leading market for fisheries and aquaculture products, the EU looks forward to the findings of the symposium, which will be an important indicator on the status of Indian Ocean tropical tuna stocks. http://www.iotc.org/English/index.php